


A Trip to the Opera House

by KayKitten



Category: Le Fantôme de l'Opéra | Phantom of the Opera - Gaston Leroux, Phantom of the Opera - Lloyd Webber
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-16
Updated: 2020-07-16
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:55:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,767
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25316422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KayKitten/pseuds/KayKitten
Summary: Christine is your average elementary school teacher, overworked and underpaid. But what happens when she runs into a mysterious stranger on a class trip?
Relationships: Christine Daaé/Erik | Phantom of the Opera
Comments: 6
Kudos: 29





	A Trip to the Opera House

This was one of those days that Christine Daaé could not be bothered to endure. It was a busy day for her with little extra pay to make it seem worth all of the extra hassle. Like always, she woke up reluctantly and got ready for another day at work. These days it seemed like her life was being consumed by her work. Christine was no longer working to live but living to work. Her social life had suffered as a consequence to this: Christine honestly couldn’t remember the last time she was invited to go for a drink. She left the house and drove off to the Charles Garnier Elementary School in a rather grim mood; the many beautiful houses and trees rolled by, yet Christine was as indifferent as usual. Christine had drove this way many times before and its appeal had worn off a long time ago – despite the fact that she had only been working as a teacher for a few months. She parked her battered Ford Fiesta in the teachers’ car park before stepping out into the baltic winter breeze. Her face turned a weak shade of blue and her fingers shook like jelly. The cold did not take kindly to Christine’s weak form, unfortunately. Small. Petite. Frail. These words summed up her physical state perfectly. She preferred to look on the bright side, she could be smaller; she could be weaker. Christine always tried to look on the bright side of life, the glass was half full. It brought more woe to think negatively in her opinion, or at least that is what Mama Valerius always told her. She stumbled inside to the warmth of her brightly decorated classroom. The walls were plastered in the artwork painstakingly handcrafted by her students and of posters full of basic phonics. Christine was so lost in thought that morning that she was completely unaware of the visitor lurking at her door. 

“Christine? Erm… Christine!?” the bright eyed and bushy tailed PE teacher was tapping on the shoulder of her best friend frantically trying to seize her attention.

The smaller woman almost jumped out of her skin, ” Meg! Oh, my goodness! You didn’t half frighten me to death!” squeaked Christine in shock.

“I wasn’t exactly sneaking up on you… Anyway! I came to see if you were ready for your exciting school trip today!” exclaimed Meg sarcastically, the dark-haired woman knew that Christine hated this.

This earned a strained groan from Christine, “Ugh. Don’t remind me…”

“I thought this would be your forte, taking your class to an opera house?” said Meg as she sat on a desk.

“What? Dragging twenty-seven eight-year-old children around an ancient opera house that they don’t care about? It will be utterly exhilarating.” Christine sorted the papers out on her desk. This school trip required a large sum of tedious paperwork that she felt too dejected to complete just yet.

“So, I’m assuming you had that date with De Chagny last night?” whenever Christine seemed upset it was always due to that insufferably sweet man. Meg couldn’t help but be jealous of Christine. To have a man like Raoul interested in you…. Christine was a lucky woman.

Christine sighed deeply and rubbed her temples, “Yeah…”

“How did it go?” asked Meg hesitantly, the Vitcomte was a touchy subject with Christine lately for many unknown reasons.  
“It went alright I suppose… He took me to that new Italian restaurant, and it was all going fine until the end of the evening. Meg. He wanted a kiss at the end of the evening, and I felt like I was leading him on - so I stopped. Everything is going to be so… So…”

“Awkward?” Meg offered; Christine nodded in agreement. Everything just had to be complicated in her life. Nothing was ever easy for the poor woman.

The school bell punctuated their gloomy silence, the school trip was about to begin. Meg left with a weak smile and the little classroom was soon full of rowdy children. It was the run up to Christmas, so all the children were a little on edge at the moment. The chatter swarmed around Christine and it haunted her like an irritating ghost. Her head began to spin as she became overwhelmed. All of the pressure thrust upon her by Raoul and the loud conversations were quickly drowning her - but Christine fought back. 

“Children! Please be quiet while I take roll call!” the children hushed obediently and answered their names. Soon enough, Christine was holding a little girl’s hand outside the school gates as they waited for the bus to arrive that would take them to the opera house. Impatiently, the chattering of the students swelled as it almost consumed Christine. Luckily, she was brought back into reality by the little girl squeezing her hand like there was no tomorrow.

“Mrs Daaé?” cooed the tiny girl.

“It’s Miss Daaé, Lizzy but yes, what’s wrong?” she giggled, Christine was certain that she would never be a “mrs”. She doubted that she’d ever marry, Christine’s love life (like her social life) was pretty non-existent at this point.

“When will the bus- “, Lizzy was cut off by the cheering of the other children as the bus swerved around the corner before halting in front of them.

“Children please quiet down and line up sensibly before getting on, ok?” Christine ordered gently. During her training to be a teacher she’d been told that she was too nice, that she didn’t have to say “please” or “thank you” to the children. However, Christine deemed it to be too disrespectful not to be polite. Her students were people too and they deserved her love and respect no matter how much of hindrances they all could be at times. One by one, they filed onto the coach; the loudest children were scolded by Christine for chanting as they sat down. As she predicted, the “cool” (if you could even really consider them that was debatable) kids sat at the back and nibbled on their “secret” sweets. Christine was well aware that they’d smuggled in the confectionary, but she didn’t have the heart to confiscate it. That was her death wish. Half an hour later after she’d told them all the rules and gave the typical lecture on behaviour the children were bouncing off the walls of the bus. Christine gradually grew livider every minute. “Sit back down Jessie!” she hollered, “This is a bus not a dance class Jacob, so sit down!” None of the other teachers on board helped her either. 

An eternity (or so it seemed) later, they finally arrived and were ushered into the grand Paris Opera House. Christine smirked as she heard a few gasps leave the lips of the children upon their arrival. It was an impressive structure spanning many floors and was host to many underground caverns below. A friendly steward guided them inside and took them to their designated seats. Like usual, the midday Opera was practically empty aside from Christine’s unruly class and a few other elderly ladies and gentlemen. Today’s opera was “Faust”, this pleased Christine especially due to it being her favourite opera. The lights dimmed and it began, the children gawked at the stage. Overall, the opera was amazing and even the most defiant children watched it intently. Luckily, they were all too young to understand the true , mature meanings behind every aria but they seemed enthralled by it nonetheless. For the most part, it was a great success. That was until it turned out Lizzy had left her scarf on the bus, the little girl flat out refused to go on a tour of the opera house until her beloved red scarf was returned to her. Much to Christine’s dismay, none of the other teachers would fetch it; even among the other teachers Christine was very much an outcast. Yet again, it was left down to her to do absolutely everything. She didn’t want to miss the tour, not when she’d paid for her own ticket. Besides, Christine loved opera too much to pass up such an interesting opportunity. She rushed to the bus, retrieved the red scarf before returning. In her state of absolute focus, she lost all sense of the outside world and ran into a tall man, knocking them both to the ground. “Oh my gosh! I’m so very sorry-“ Christine looked up at the tall man who had fallen on top of her in a very awkward position, to say the least. She was immediately taken with his handsome face and gorgeous eyes… Wait! His eyes were, amber? Christine had never seen eyes like his before, they reminded her of the colour of the sun setting over the ocean… Oh god. She’d been staring at him this whole time. Christine tore her eyes away from him and her cheeks turned a deep red. The mysterious man stood up and offered her a hand which she eagerly accepted. He pulled her up onto her feet easily, it was as if she weighed less than a feather to him. His cheeks were also a shade of pink (not that Christine could see as his face was covered in a black mask), his amber eyes shied away from her blue ones.

“No, it was my fault mademoiselle, I should have been more careful. Are you, lost?” he added his question on the end awkwardly as he stared down at his shoes pretending that they were the most intriguing thing he’d ever seen.

Christine could not say no to this opportunity, screw the school trip. She lied, “Yes… I am lost, I’m supposed to be going on a tour with my class and I had to get the red scarf for Lizzy-“ she hesitated after she realised that she’d been blabbing on to this kind gentleman about some nonsense he wouldn’t understand in the slightest. 

“Oh! What a coincidence! I’m the tour guide!” he lied too, “My name is Mr. Destler, please come with me.” He gestured for her to follow him.

Christine almost fainted, she would be shown around the opera house by this, to put it bluntly, hot guy… It was almost too much for her, she hadn’t even noticed his mask. “I’m Chri- Miss Daaé, that’s what the children call me at least…” she didn’t want to give away her first name just yet, it would be embarrassing for him to call her by it in front of the children and other members of staff.

“The children?” he looked down at her quizzically, she didn’t look old enough to have children. She didn’t even look old enough to be out of high school yet.

“I forgot to tell you: I am here with the class I teach. I’m an elementary school teacher.” she confessed; it wasn’t the sexiest of jobs. Christine had no idea why but this man… She felt so attracted to him, not just his looks either. He seemed a genuinely nice guy who was willing to help (even if she wasn’t actually lost). 

“Well I’m actually a pianist, I played the piano in today’s opera, but I also sometimes do tours seeing as I know the building so well.” he lied, well it wasn’t really a lie. He was a pianist; he had played in that performance but he wasn’t actually a tour guide. Mr Destler just wanted to spend more time with Miss Daaé: she wasn’t just pretty, she was adorable. He was a simple man - he knew what he liked and he wouldn’t stop at anything until he got it.

He took Christine underground to one of the vast lakes hidden so well underneath the huge structure. She could just make out her class on the riverbank, they were all splashing about and getting terribly wet. Christine dreaded the reactions of the parents when they would see that their precious children were soaked to the bone. But it wasn’t Christine’s fault, she’d been “lost” after all and the children had been under the care of the other (albeit less competent) teachers. The pair joined the other party and Mr Destler had a word with the real tour guide before slipping him some money, it was a harmless bribe. All the tour guide had to do was go home and let Mr Destler conduct the tour instead. However, the managers could not find out about this or he’d be fired.

When this was all cleared up Mr Destler made everyone line up in pairs. Christine just so happened to be at the front with him, what a coincidence. She had no one else to walk with except Mr Destler, he’d planned this all out quite well considering he’d only had a few minutes to prepare. He took them all around the underground lagoons and basements, it was if they were the creases on the palm of his hand because he knew where absolutely everything was. 

They trekked around a rather large lake with a slippery path, Mr Destler instructed the children to hold hands with the person they were walking with, just in case someone slipped the other person could pull them away from the water’s edge. It was just a safety precaution. Christine was unaware that this actually meant she had to hold their unlikely tour guide’s hand but she wasn’t exactly complaining when he took her hand. The only thing Mr Destler had failed to plan was who was walking closest to the water. Christine (being the clumsy lady she was) slipped and was about to plummet headfirst into the ominous pool of water when a cool pair of hands caught her waist just in time. Her cheeks tinted red again, the feeling of his hands on her slim waist could only be described as similar to being electrically shocked. The tension between them only increased as he held her for a moment, forgetting to let go of her. They both gazed longingly into each other’s eyes until they were interrupted by the giggles of the other teachers.

As far as friends went, Christine was only friends with Meg (her oldest friend) who was also the gym teacher. Christine wasn’t fond of any of the other teachers at Charles Garnier Elementary School, they were all too snooty for her personal tastes. Meg had been Christine’s best friend since the day they first met in kindergarten, from that day onwards the two had been inseparable.  
The tour came to a dramatic conclusion when they were climbing the stairs to leave the underground caverns, Mr Destler and Christine were the last two people with Mr Destler behind Christine. An unfortunate draft of winter air blew the skirt of her pale blue dress up revealing a large portion of her upper thigh. Immediately, she pulled her skirts down but the damage was already done and what he had seen could not be unseen. Christine had secretly not been bothered about him seeing so much of her leg, she was still trying to flirt with him even though they hadn’t exchanged so much as a single, pitiful word throughout the duration of the whole tour. Everyone was counted and put onto the coach, everyone except Christine who was of course stood in the freezing cold with Mr Destler. She shivered in the blustering cold as she smiled up at him, “Thank you very much for today… The children really enjoyed your tour.” she shattered the uncomfortable silence between them, finally. 

He saw her shiver and he couldn’t have her suffer like this so he removed his jacket and offered it to her; Christine took it shyly and put it on, “Here, why don’t you borrow this? Also, it was a pleasure to…” he stumbled as he tried to form words (she looked too darn cute wearing his jacket that it distracted him) “share my knowledge.” He finished. 

Christine giggled sweetly at his loss for words, she wondered what had distracted him so badly. She didn’t think that she had the power to be so cute that she made people forget about things this easily. “I hope we meet again Mr Destler!” said Christine as she boarded the bus, still wearing his jacket. Christine skipped the safety lecture and the bus driver took them back to school. 

The next thing she knew she was sat alone in her classroom snuggled up on her chair with his jacket as her blanket. It was then that she finally cottoned onto the fact that she still had his jacket, would she ever be able to return it to that mysterious man?

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed this! I would love to hear some feedback. I wrote this a long time ago. This is supposed to be a oneshot but if you desire for this to be turned into a full-blown fic, please let me know!
> 
> Yours sincerely,  
> \- KayKitten


End file.
